Do the recent stories of the emergence of Hantavirus feel familiar? Do you remember where you were on March 13th, 2020? As students, it was our last day of school as we knew it pre-pandemic. Everything changed, the precautions we took in public, the services that used to be provided, and the familiarity of what once was daily life. Many people lost work during the pandemic, and there were many working on the front lines as essential workers, risking illness. Scientists worked tirelessly to produce a vaccine to stop this once unpreventable disease, and between mass vaccination and quarantining, we were eventually able to return to a life that resembled normal. So what has changed from then to now with people receiving the COVID-19 vaccine?
Currently the population of vaccinated individuals is declining, but what has affected the public’s perspective? In our research we have found that the government played a substantial influence. Many lives were tragically lost during the COVID-19 Pandemic, but recently, there has been a growth in COVID caused deaths, as well as a spike in deaths caused by infectious diseases after the pandemic. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “the number of children missing routine vaccinations has been increasing in recent years” and cases of diseases that were much lower in years before, like measles and meningitis, have begun to rise. In an article by the American Lung Association, it is stated that in 2023, an estimated 14.5 million children missed all of their routine vaccine doses, which is 1.6 million more than in 2019. The reason for this decline in vaccination is that many citizens are scared of side effects that are often caused by the lingering fear of COVID-19 and its vaccine, which has some rare adverse side effects.
Before the pandemic, vaccine hesitancy was named one of the top ten threats to global health by the World Health Organization (WHO), even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world. While there has always been vaccine hesitancy, the small number of people unvaccinated were always protected with “herd community,” a term that is used when everyone around an unvaccinated individual is vaccinated, protecting the individual without the vaccine. Now that the pandemic has passed, the rise of deaths caused by disease is continuing to grow due to vaccine hesitancy. This decline has contributed to the re-emergence of diseases that were previously controlled; for instance, the number of people affected with the disease measles has significantly spiked. Researchers have stated that: “US cases have risen to their highest levels in 2025”, which demonstrates how quickly progress can be reversed when vaccine rates fall.
A contributing factor to the decline of vaccinations is misinformation. Fear has mainly been caused by the government, media, and many famous public figures due to statements that play into the current stipulations regarding the need and requirement of vaccines. Notably, the US Secretary of Health and Human Services has given multiple statements about his disagreement to require people to get vaccinated. A health reporter for PBS news quotes Kennedy in her article 12 ways RFK Jr. has undercut vaccine confidence as health secretary about who should not get the COVID vaccine, “the government would no longer recommend the COVID vaccine for pregnant people and healthy children.” The American Lung Association has then written back with an article stating: “without the official recommendation for routine use, the announcement has created uncertainty about insurance coverage and payment for COVID-19 vaccines, potentially impacting affordability and making it less accessible for many families.” With the lack of accessibility the rise of post-pandemic COVID cases will rise, resulting in more unnecessary suffering and in some cases death, with many of the cases which could have been prevented.
An article on COVID-19 Vaccine Politicization Fueled Hesitancy has also speculated on why there is an increase of vaccine hesitancy, stating that the vaccine became politically charged during the election. Evidence from the study shows that there is a significant link between higher Republican affiliation and lower vaccination rates. Subsequently, following the election with President Donald Trump, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) began terminating at least 33 research grants focused on vaccine hesitancy and strategies to improve vaccine uptake, signaling a shift in funding priorities. Without the funding for vaccine research, the effort in educating the public will inevitably fail and the number of disease fatalities will rise.
In conclusion, the stigmatism around vaccines is caused by public perception and government based organizations/leaders. Without the proper funding or basic knowledge that vaccines are harmless and helpful, there will be an increase of many previously controlled diseases spreading. The number of unvaccinated children will rise as well as the death count in once preventable diseases. It is unfortunate but, the government, and more specifically, important leaders have forgotten how important vaccines are. Vaccines have worked so well in previous years that many dangerous diseases are thought to have been left in the past, which is also a large factor in vaccine hesitancy because of the reduced perception of risk, but the risk of disease is still very much alive if we don’t do our due diligence in taking precaution and educating ourselves.
